Speaker 1: M I Wall Street line.
Speaker 2: Shackle change, Oh gesome girdie, it's calling my name. There
is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as
the huge stream game Wrangle three.
Speaker 3: I'm here be by mere to die inside these walls,
inside the wild and when the girls.
Speaker 4: I Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a
podcast one forty two years in the making, the complete
story of America's bloodiest person. I'm Jim Chapman, and we
are back with this third installment in the Executions Commenced series,
and this one is all about the death warrant signed
for Larry Roy, known as the Cheneyville Slasher. So, as
I've been doing with prior episodes in this series, I'm
going to bring you into the crime, the conviction, all
the way up to present day, and with this one,
we're going to start in Cheneyville, Louisiana, and y'all, Cheneyville
is in what is known as Rapids Parish, located kind
of in the center of the state of Louisiana. And
Cheneyville is an extremely small town, less than five hundred residents,
the type of place where everybody knows everybody right and
when the crime I'm about to tell you about occurred.
It shocked the entire community. It just did not happen
in Cheneyville. And we're going to go back to the
early morning hours of May Sewi of nineteen ninety three,
and a call comes in to a nine to one
one call center. This is at one thirty am. The
caller stated that her neighbor, thirty one year old Sally
Ann Reeshard, had stumbled over to her house bleeding from
a gash in her throat, with her hands bound behind
her back, and that the woman needed medical assistance right away.
So the police chief, a guy by the name of
Archie Blue, he was on patrol, and yep, in a
town this size, the chief of police was patrolling just
like everyone else. They didn't exactly have a large police department.
So the chief takes the call and he heads towards
the address, and what he saw when he pulled up
to that home was shocking. When Chief Blue pulled up
to the house, his lights caught an eight year old
named Frederick Reeschard outside lying in his own blood near
a lightpole in the front yard, and he was near
death and unable to speak. Blue recalled saying to himself quote,
oh my god, that boy is cut to death. Unquote.
He could see that the boy was extremely weak. He
also noticed the family dog who was tied up near
where little Frederick's body lay in that front yard, and
the dog appeared unalarmed. So although this eight year old
was in dire straits, he was still alive and Chief
Blue he turns around to rush back to his patrol car.
He was going to make a plea for the ambulances
to kind of double time it to the scene, and
as he did, he hears ten year old David Reshard
fall down near what turned out to be his mother's vehicle,
which was also parked in the front yard. Now David,
much like his brother, was also too weak to speak,
but after a second officer who had arrived on the scene,
unbound his hands, the boy was able to hold up
two fingers and motion them towards the house, which indicated
to these officers that two more people were inside that home.
So quickly, at this point, you already have thirty one
year old Sally Reshord Throat slashed clinging to life, eight
year old Frederick Throat slashed clinging to life, and ten
year old David also slashed clinging to life. So the
officers they approached the home very cautiously, they didn't know
if this monster was still inside. Once inside the home,
they see what can only be described as an absolutely
horrific site. Sitting on the edge of the bed in
a bedroom was thirty three year old Freddie Reeshard Junior,
who was the two boys father in the ex husband
of Sally m Reshoard. His upper body was slumped forward
between his legs and he had been stabbed seven times,
at least that the officers could clearly see. One stab
womb was wide across his throat from ear to ear.
As they canvassed the house, they came across another bedroom
and found Sally in reshards On seventy five year old
Rosetta Silas deceased. She was lying face down in her
bed in her night clothes, with her throat slept from
ear to ear. So police at this point they have
two dead inside the house and three seriously injured outside
of the house, with two of them being children, and
they moved quick to get all of these victims that
were still alive to the hospital. Now miss Sallyenne she
was able to tell police who was responsible for this
and what happened, and the responsible party was none other
than Larry Roy. Now let me tell you a little
bit about Larry Roy and his relationship to this family.
Larry was the ex boyfriend of Sally m. Reshard. Sally
started dating Larry after her and her husband, Freddie Reeschard Junior,
had divorced, and Larry moved in with Sally and her
kids and her aunt in the family home in Cheneyville.
But they had a rocky relationship and that eventually led
to them breaking things off. And this was in January
of nineteen ninety three. Now, at that point, Sally and
her ex husband they kind of started rekindling their relationship.
They started a reconciliation and Freddie Reshard Junior moved back
in to that family home. Well, Larry did not like
that at all. He starts threatening Sally Anne with guns
to the point that she even filed a complaint with police.
And over the next few months prior to this incident,
his harassment would worsen. Shortly before the attacks of May third,
nineteen ninety three, Sally awoke to go to work one
morning and her tires were slashed. She files yet another
complaint with police, but there was just no evidence to
link Larry Roy to that tire slashing. So it was
on May second of nineteen ninety three that, by chance,
while at a local convenience store, the entire family encounters
Larry Roy, and it was at that point that he
walks by Sally Ann and says, quote, things are going
to go down tonight. Later that evening, the ree shards
they retire, and as they always did, they slept in
the same room, Mom and Dad in the bed and
the two young boys in sleeping bags on the floor
of that bedroom. On Monday, May third, at approximately one
thirty am, Larry Roy barges into the bedroom and he
awakes the family out of a dead sleep. Larry Roy
jumps on top of Freddy Rieshard Junior in a fight ensues.
During this time, Sally in she grabs the bedside telephone
to call nine to one one. However, as she picks
up the phone, Roy informs her that he cut the
phone wires and this yaw was well before cell phones.
It's also at this time that Sally Anne realizes that
Freddy Reshard Junior has been stabbed to death as he's
perched on the front of the bed. Miss Reeshard jumps
up and attempts to flee with the children, but Roy
stops her, and he's still armed with that knife, and
he forces the two children to lay down on the
floor in the hallway. Then at knife point, he forces
sally Anne to go into her aunt's bedroom. They awaken
seventy five year old Miss Silas and he demands money.
Miss Silas gives him fifty dollars that she kept hidden
under her mattress. And typically elderly people, especially back then,
they would hide cash in their house and usually it's
under that mattress. Right, Roy counts the money and he
starts questioning Miss Silas as to if any more money
was hidden anywhere else in the house, to which Miss
Silas tells him no. Next, Larry Roy brings Sally Anne
into the kitchen of that home and he starts asking
her why she reported to police that he slashed her tires.
He then brings her into the living room where he
places her face down on the floor beside the sofa,
and using a telephone cord that he brought with him,
he ties her hands behind her back. He pulls her
head back and slits her throat, telling her in her
ear while he's doing that quote. By the time the
police get here, y'all are all going to be dead.
Larry Roy then goes into the hallway and he ties
eight year old Frederick's hands behind his back and he
slits his throat. He then takes a pillow case and
he places it over ten year old David's head, ties
David's hands behind his back, pulls David's head back, and
slits his throat. Then he heads again into seventy five
year old Miss Silas's bedroom. Now during the time that
he's going in that bedroom, both Sally Anne and her
two sons struggled, but made their way outside the home,
hands still tied behind their backs. Sally Amne would later
say that as she got out of the front door,
she could hear seventy five year old Miss Rosetta Silas
screaming after Roy began stabbing her to death. So, after
learning this information, police had a problem. They had no
idea where Larry Roy was. By the time they arrived
on the scene, he was nowhere to be found. And
when all of this hit the paper that Tuesday May,
Larry Roy was already dubbed the Cheneyville slasher and police
started a massive manhunt for this guy, who was wanted
for the murder of two in the attempted murder of three,
including two children. They knew Larry Roy had a lot
of family and was very familiar with a Boyle's Parish,
which was a neighboring parish to Rapids, and they focused
the search there. Now, A Boyle's Parish created somewhat of
a challenge for police boils at that time was very rural,
very wooded part of Louisiana, and there are a lot
of places in which to hide. But luck would strike
when a relative of Larry Roy's who lived in a
wooded area near a highway in the parish, reported Roy
was hanging out around her home. Police started searching the
area until about lunchtime on May fourth, realizing that Roy
likely was only going to be moving at night and
was probably hidden out of sight, so at sundown police
began that extensive search again, and they incorporated the use
of bloodhounds helicopters. Several agencies took place in this search,
knowing the sheer horror of the crime that Larry Roy committed. Now,
this was before drones, unfortunately, so no drones were out
Roy was described in local papers as wearing a white
jumpsuit with black tennis shoes. For people to be on
the lookout for this obviously dangerous individual, and it was
two days later, on the fifth of May twenty twenty three,
that Larry Roy was caught. He was spotted by a
sheriff's deputy in a small town called Bunkie, Louisiana. So
when the officer spotted him, Larry Roy actually jumped into
a parked car at an intersection. The detective a guy
by the name of Byron Juno. He was a four
year veteran of Thevoyl's Parish Sheriff's office and he was
working overtime that night like everybody else, hunting for Larry Roy.
When at twelve thirty am he was patrolling the streets
of Bunkie looking specifically for a man fitting Roy's description.
A group of males flags him down and said they
just saw the Chameyville slasher walk by. Now. As soon
as they said that, there was Roy running across the
intersection away from him, Larry Roy pulls on the car
handle of basically the first car he sees and slides
into the passenger seat and behind the wheel by sheer coincidence,
is Larry Roy's cousin. So the officer approaches and Roy
tries to slump down in the car to hide, but
it was way too late for that. The officer pulls
him out and asks his name, to which Larry Roy
replied Lawrence Smith. But everyone around the scene started telling
the officer that was bullshit, that that was in fact
Larry Roy. So the officer turns to the man and says,
I'm going to ask you one more time, what's your name?
And Larry Roy is quoted as saying, you got me.
I'm Larry Roy. Now, at the time that he was caught,
Roy was unarmed and he did not resist, so he
is arrested and eventually this case goes to trial. It
took quite a while to even get to the trial point,
and Roy in the trial, he attempts to use what's
done as an intoxication defense. He actually testifies on his
own behalf and he said that at approximately five o'clock
PM on May second of nineteen ninety three, he consumed
several beers and a half pint of gin. He then said,
at some time during that evening, he purchases one hundred
and forty dollars worth of crack cocaine, which he smoked
prior to the attacks. According to his account, he claimed
that because he was intoxicated and also in a drug state,
he could not remember his whereabouts or his activities that
entire evening. Nonetheless, he denied killing or harming anyone. Now,
of course, that was total bs. In the jury, they
weren't buying it, and they find Larry Roy guilty of
two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of
Miss Silas in the death of Freddy Reeschard Junior, and
on August thirtieth of nineteen ninety four, Larry Roy is
sentenced to death by a unanimous jury. And it's at
this point that, as you already know, the appeals start
and Roy goes through years and years of appealing this
with every fiber of his being. Eventually he exhausts all
of those appeals, and because of the Death Rose situation
in Louisiana, in the fact that it went on a
hiatus for like fifteen years, just all these things I've
told you about in other episodes, he would sit on
death row for the next thirty one years before getting
an official signed death warrant in February of this year. Now,
in the meantime he even sought pardons, and in November
of twenty twenty three, two of the surviving members of
this terrible event, they even testified at a Board of
Pardon hearing against Larry Roy getting off death row, and
he was denied clemency in that hearing. So, as I mentioned,
on February tenth of twenty twenty five, the Rapides Parish
District attorney, guy by the name of Philip Tarrell, he
obtained that death warrant for Larry Roy. And I have
a copy of that and I'll just read it to
you quickly, and it's dated February tenth, twenty twenty five,
and the cover letter says today Governor Jeff Landry announced
that the Louisiana Department of Corrections has implicated a protocol
for carrying out sentences for defendants on death row. The
promises made by jurys and the justice system to the
victims of the most heinous of crimes has been withheld
for too long. Consequently, my office has prepared and filed
a death warrant in the matter of the State of
Louisiana versus Larry Roy and its signed Philip Terrell, District Attorney,
and it goes on to say motion to cause the
issuance of execution. Warrant says now into the court through
the undersigned Assistant District Attorney comes to State of Louisiana,
moving the court as follows. The defendant was indicted for
two counts of first degree murder on July second, nineteen
ninety three. Roy was tried by jury for those crimes
in nineteen ninety four, and the jury returned a verdict
of guiltiest charge on both counts on July nineteenth of
nineteen ninety four, and returned to death sentence on July
twenty first of nineteen ninety one. This court accepted the
recommendation and imposed the sentence. On August thirtieth of nineteen
ninety four. The defendant filed an appeal with the Louisiana
Supreme Court. The state responded and the convictions and sentences
were affirmed. The defendant filed an application for a rehearing,
which was denied on November fifteenth of nineteen ninety six.
The rulings of the Louisiana Supreme Court were reviewed by
the United States Supreme Court, and the US Supreme Court
declined to review the rulings, effectively affirming the decisions based
on the Louisiana Supreme Court. On August seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven,
a death warrant issued with an execution day. October twenty second,
nineteen ninety seven. That death warrant was recalled and reissued
on September sixteenth of nineteen ninety seven. All post conviction
pleadings have been resolved in favor of the state. The
defendant made an application for clemency to the Louisiana Bord
of Pardon, which was denied on November eighth of twenty
twenty three. At present time, no warrant of execution has
been signed setting the date of the defendant's execution. There
are no other outstanding applications for relief or stays of
execution in this matter. So that was the motion. And
then you have what's known as a warrant of execution.
And if you never heard how these read, it just
says it is hereby ordered that, in accordance with provisions
and at lists those in the manner provided by law,
said condemned person to be put to death on nineteenth
day of March twenty twenty five, between six pm and
nine pm. It is further ordered that the Clerk of
Court shall forward to the Secretary of the Department of
Public Safety and Corrections of the State of Louisiana a
certified copy of the indictment, verdict sentence, as well as
the decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court affirming the sentence
of death for Larry Roy. It is further ordered that
upon receipt of this warrant of execution, the Secretary of
Public Safety and Corrections of the State of Louisiana shall
provide a copy of the warrant and deliver it to
the condemned person, Larry Roy. It is further ordered that
a certified copy of this warrant of execution shall be
transmitted by the Clerk of this Court to the Honorable
Jeff Landry, Governor of the State of Louisiana, and the
former manner directed by Alyssa's Statute, Philip Arrell, ninth Judicial
District Attorney, and to Blithe Talping, Council of Record for
Larry Roy. So that is the official warrant of execution.
So that's right on March nineteenth, of twenty twenty five.
Larry Roy is going to be executed. But wait, not
so fast. March nineteenth has already passed, and I'm not
told you anything about the actual execution. Why because it
didn't happen. On March eleventh, a Judicial Court district judge
by the name of Chris Hazel pushed back Larry Roy's execution,
denying the motion until a hearing can take place. And
this is scheduled for April fourteenth of twenty twenty five
in the ninth JBC. And this comes on the heels
of Jesse Hoffman's execution being blocked by US Chief District
Judge Shelley Dick. And I brought you his case in
part one of this series. That judge found the method
of execution to be inhumane. But you know what's inhumane
to me? And I get it if you don't like it,
but it's how I personally feel. And that's the fact
that the victims of these crimes that get these guys
sentenced to the ultimate penalty are always the last peep
to be considered. You're sentenced to death by jury of
your peers, unanimously, and yet judges seem to consistently block
the will of the people, and this, in my opinion,
has to stop. And guess what, we just got an
update on Jesse Hoffman. Now, look, as soon as I
recorded this series, of course, I record these. A couple
of days early, I get a text from WAFB dot
com and it appears that Jesse Hoffman's execution is now
on as scheduled. I'm gonna read you this quick article.
Speaker 1: Dis or.
Speaker 4: Judge dissolves restraining order tied to Hoffman's execution. At this point,
the execution is back on schedule unless another court, including
the US Supreme Court, decides to intervene. Teteenth JDC Judge
Richard Chipmore issued the restraining order Monday until he could
preside over the hearing Tuesday morning. Regarding whether the method
of execution being planned violates Hoffman's religious freedoms under the
Preservation of Religious Freedom Act, Moore cited with the Louisiana
Department of Corrections. The state says it will execute Hoffman
using nitrogen hypoxia, which is the deprivation of oxygen through
the inhalation of nitrogen. Hoffman claims that nitrogen hypoxia would
interfere with his religious right for him to do meditative
breathing as he is being put to death. Hoffman was
sentenced to death by lethal injection in nineteen ninety eight
for the murder of Mary Molly Elliott in Saint Tammany
Parish that happened in nineteen ninety six, and of course
that was the first episode in this series. Hoffman kidnapped
Elliott as she was leaving her New Orleans home to
give to meet her husband for dinner. She was then
raped and killed. The planned execution of Hoffman would be
Louisiana's first in fifteen years in the state's first time
to carry out an execution using nitrogen. So as of now,
apparently it's back on. Of course, the last seventy two
hours of this stuff, things change left and right, so
I'll keep you posted. But because my Patreon members get
these episodes early, I won't be able to edit this
anymore than it has been done now, so I'll give
you an update next week on what occurred with that execution,
and now I guess back to our scheduled programming. Now.
Since I started this series, many people have messaged me
and they've wanted me to provide more details on the
method of execution, specifically nitrogen hypoxia, which I can tell
you one hundred percent the death row inmates here are
scared shitless about and I ain't mad about that. I'm
glad they're a little bit scared. Honestly. When I was
researching this method, I came across a very well written
article from CBS News that explains it. And I'm gonna
read that article for you now because it really gives
you what I feel is the best account of explaining
this method. And the headline reads, what is nitrogen hypoxia?
Alabama's Kenneth Smith execution proceeds with unprecedented controversial method. A
death row inmate in Alabama, Kenneth Eugene Smith, was executed
Thursday night by nitrogen hypoxia, and this was written a
couple of months ago, a controversial and untested method that
has prompted legal pushback and public scrutiny from critics within
the United States and abroad. Smith became the first inmate
to die this way. He was convicted in the nineteen
eighty eight killing of a pastor's wife as part of
a murder for higher scheme, and has been imprisoned for decades.
In Alabama. He already survived a botched lethal injection in
November of twenty twenty two, one of four in Alabama
since twenty eighteen, which was the same year the state
authorized the use of nitrogen hypoxia in the death chamber.
It is among three states, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi,
that technically permit the method as an alternative in the
death chamber, since lethal injections in recent years have been
come harder to get, and of course you can add
Louisiana to that list now. Before Thursday, no execution had
ever been carried out in the United States using this method,
and experts have repeatedly warned that nitrogen toxicity may cause
the condemned person to suffer unnecessarily, while at the same
time threatening the health of others in the room. In
a news briefing following the execution, Alabama Department of Corressionist
Commissioner John Hamm said the the execution began at seven
fifty three pm and Smith was pronounced dead at eight
twenty five pm. The nitrogenmask was kept on Smith for
about five minutes after a flat line, ham said. According
to the media report, Smith's last words were tonight Alabama
caused humanity to take a step backward. I'm leaving with love,
peace and light. Thank you for supporting me, Love all
of you. He also made an I Love you sign
with sign language, reporter said. A reporter also stated that
Smith appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney for
at least two minutes at the start of the execution,
asking him whether that was expected or an indication of suffering,
it appeared that one Smith was holding his breath for
as long as he could him, responded, and then there's
also information out there that he struggled against his restraints
a little bit, but there's some involuntary movement in some
angled breathing. So that was all expected and as in
the side effects that we've seen researched with nitrogen hypoxia.
Smith and his spiritual advisor, the Reverend Jeff Hoods, said
in a statement prior to the execution that the eyes
of the world are on this impending moral apocalypse.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 4: Our prayer is that people will not turn their head.
We simply cannot normalize the suffocation of each other. They said,
So what is nitrogen hypoxia, Well, that's a process where
pure nitrogen gas or nitrogen gas at concentrations high enough
to be lethal are inhaled to the point of causing asphyxiation.
It is a relatively new alternative to more common forms
of capital punishment like lethal injection and electrocution, which are
two methods used most prevalently across the United States. The
nonprofit organization Death Penalty Information Center noted that lethal gas
is authorized broadly as an execution method in seven states,
including Alabama, Mississippi, Oakland, although those are the only three
that have specified the use of nitrogen for this purpose,
and only Alabama has released a formal execution protocol for
nitrogen hypoxia. The protocol was issued late last August, and
the version made available to the public is heavily redacted.
Breathing nitrogen through a mass could, in theory, cause a
person to lose consciousness before oxygen deprivation leads to death,
and Alabama officials insisted that this is most likely how
the scheduled execution happened. But Smith's legal team, while seeking
an injunction to halt the execution plans that was ultimately rejected,
accuse the state of using him as a test subject
for a lethal experiment. A group of ewing consultants raised
concerns about the execution, saying that nitrogen hypoxia would result
in painful and humiliating deaths. A spokesman said that execution
by nitrogen asphyxiation could amount to the torture or or
other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment under international
human rights law? So what do we know about inhaling
nitrogen gas? During the execution, Smith was strapped to a
gurney chamber and forced to breathe nitrogen through the gas mask,
although it had never been used inside the death chamber.
The consequences of too much nitrogen inhalation, usually accidentally in
industrial settings, are well documented. Nitrogen exists organically in the
atmosphere and actually composes around seventy five percent of the
air that humans and animals breathe every day, but the
colorless and utterless gas is only safe to inhale when
it's mixed with the appropriate concentration of oxygen. Otherwise, breathing
it is toxic that narians have refused to use nitrogen
asphyxiation to ethanize animals because of its distressing effects and
potential risk to people around commercially and industrially. Pure nitrogen
is used in products like fertilizer, nylon, and various dyes,
as well as explosives. Because nitrogen displaces oxygen, it's often
used at chemical plants and manufacturing facilities to shield certain
equipment from contaminants including oxygen, which could damage the equipment
or in some cases even pose fire hazards or cause explosions.
Liquid nitrogen is also used in laboratories and in medical
settings for flash freezing in other purposes. The US Chemical
Safety Board issued a series of bulletins in the early
two thousands that review cases of nitrogen asphyxiation over the
previous decade, with the aim of raising awareness and relaying
proper safety protocols to prevent such situations from happening. In
one bulletin, the references information from the Compressed Gas Association.
The Board notes that when enough nitrogen is introduced to
deplete oxygen in the air to less than ten percent,
effects on the human body can be lethal, potentially causing
in ality to move, loss of consciousness, convulsions, and death.
Even partial oxygen displacement can have serious consequences. Research has
shown that when oxygen levels in the air down to
around twelve point five percent. Humans can experience impaired respiration
that may cause permanent heart damage along with nausea, vomiting,
and very poor judgment and coordination. So how does the
actual executions work well. The mass of the state placed
over Smith's face was a NIOSH approved Type C full
face mass supplied air respirator, which is a type of
mass used by industrial workers to get life saving oxygen.
After nitrogen gas is introduced, it will be administered for
fifteen minutes or two five minute intervals following a flatline
indication on an EKG, whichever is longer. Most redactive portions
of the protocol or those involving how the gas system
is stored, tested and set up. Some of the sections
acknowledge the potential risk associated with having nitrogen takes in
the workplace, et cetera. Alabama's protocol does not allow for
a spiritual advisor in the chamber unless they review and
sign a nitrogen hypoxia acknowledgment form ahead of time. That
restriction formed the basis for a lawsuit filed by Reverend Hood,
who is a spiritual advisor to death row inmates in Alabama,
challenging the use of nitrogen hypoxia and executions in Hood
told CBS News that the method prevents him from doing
his job properly because agreeing to support a condemned person
through this type of execution could potentially put his own
health in danger. He also said the rule in and
of itself goes against the Supreme Court decision in March
twenty twenty two that required states to allow spiritual advisors
to be present with condemned inmates in their final moments.
And there you have it, barring some breaking news, I'm
going to be covering a brand new series next week,
and please consider the Patreon if you would like to
support what we do here at Bloody Angola. Commercial free,
early releases and more can be found there. Without it,
we don't exist, so please consider joining, and until next time,
I'm Jim Chapman for Bloody Angola, a podcast one and
forty two years in the making, the complete story of
America's bloodiest present Peace.
Speaker 2: A wall Street line, shackle chain, It's calling my name.
There is no mercy and it's been a century. Juice
as the huge stream game Rango the three.
Speaker 3: I'm in bed by Me to die inside these walls.
Speaker 1: Inside the wild, and when.
Speaker 3: The crowds, I'm no, it's solbody angle. Ohbody angle.